Salesforce Launches First Accelerate Program

Five British startups will take part in the Salesforce Accelerate program as it launches in Europe next week, with the first workshop taking place in London on September 3.

Running over four months Salesforce Accelerate is predominantly designed as a virtual program that assists in nurturing startups as they move along the management life cycle to general availability on Salesforce’s AppExchange.

Salesforce Accelerate, formally operating as Salesforce Incubator, will see 14 companies from across Europe and Israel receive tutelage and training to help grow their applications so they can be sold on the Salesforce AppExchange.

The AppExchange is a cloud-computing applications marketplace run by Salesforce.

Anne DelSanto GM of Platform at Salesforce said in a statement shared on Thursday: “Over 87% of Salesforce customers use AppExchange solutions to extend their success with their customers. A strong partner ecosystem is the number one differentiator in today’s digital world and that’s why we couldn’t be happier to welcome these 14 companies into the program.”

Salesforce Accelerate UK

Most of the companies involved in this first round of workshops already have some connection with the Salesforce platform and will use the Accelerate program as a stepping stone to full operation on the AppExchange.

Singlify was founded by three members who have previous Salesforce application development experience and are building an end-to-end management platform for the social investment and impact investing sector.

Digital Fineprint, meanwhile, will develop an offering aimed at SME insurers and brokers, helping them gain insight from open data sets; this will be done through AI and predictive analytics.

All 14 startups in this round are developing applications in relation to the InsurTech and FinTech industries.

Joaquin de Valenzuela Head of Financial Services EMEA at Salesforce said: “Financial Services was one of the first industries to experience the impact of the new generation of clients demanding personalized, high-value and easy to use services.”

“It is also a highly regulated space, which means both established and new players need to share the fundamental values of trust and transparency.”

“These innovative companies are among those pioneering new uses of technology and disruption in Financial Services, all driven by a focus on customer experience.”

Beginning with its first in-person workshop at 110 Bishopsgate London, the programme will run online workshops over four months, with two more in-person workshops to be held in Dublin and Paris at later dates.